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Subject: B-2 will attack moving targets with PGMs...
DarthAmerica    2/12/2008 4:00:21 PM
by Staff Writers
Palmdale CA (SPX) Feb 11, 2008
Northrop Grumman is taking the first steps toward giving the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber the ability to destroy moving targets under a current contract with the U.S. Air Force. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the B-2, the flagship of the nation's long-range strike arsenal.
Under a one-year, $9.33 million contract, the company has begun preparing the B-2 to carry and deploy small, precision-guided weapons such as the 250-pound class Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II). The company's work is focused on upgrading the aircraft's current display and weapon interfaces to accommodate this class of weapons. The SDB-II is currently in development and source selection.

"This new Moving Target Kill (MTK) capability is the latest in a series of upgrades defined by the Air Force/Northrop Grumman-led industry team to increase the lethality and fighting effectiveness of the B-2," said Dave Mazur, vice president of Long Range Strike for Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector. "It will allow commanders to deal decisively with an increasingly decentralized and mobile enemy under all weather conditions."

Implementing the MTK capability requires upgrading the B-2's current analog, multi-function pit displays and qualifying several of its radar modes to perform the MTK function. Under the current contract, Northrop Grumman is developing and testing a brassboard version of the replacement displays in a laboratory environment. The new systems will be able to display both analog and digital data.

Northrop Grumman has also started planning for the required installation of the Universal Armament Interface (UAI) on the B-2. The UAI is a new "plug and play"-like interface developed by the Air Force to reduce the time and costs required to integrate precision guided weapons on airborne platforms. It standardizes the physical connections and communications protocols used to pass information between an aircraft and the on-board weapons stores.

Full implementation of the UAI will also require upgrading the B-2's display control processor and its stores management processor. Those upgrades are not a part of the current contract.

The MTK capability is the latest in a series of B-2 modernization efforts undertaken by Northrop Grumman and its subcontractors to help the Air Force ensure that the aircraft remains fully capable against evolving threats.


*********************************************************************


Nothing much to add except wow! Can you imagine what a pair of B-2s with this capability could do to a massed mechanized unit? The Blitz just became obsolete!


-DA
 
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ArtyEngineer       2/12/2008 4:30:10 PM
Damn!!! V Cool!!!!!  2 x B2 = 160 SDB potentially. 
 
So the SDB II is going to have inflight updates to enable the MTK capability.  Obviously the B2 is unlikely to do target acquisition/designation on its own.  In the scenario DA mentioned of a massed armour formation I would assume JSTARS would provide the data to teh B2 which would inturn pass to teh munitions in flight, or could the B2 hand off control of the munitions to teh JSTARS after release?
 
I have just had a thought though......how about a B2 witha massive conformal AESA array on its underside.  That would let teh B2 detect, identify and target ground targets!!!!!  The AESA radars can also be used as a data transfer system as well cant it?
 
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DarthAmerica       2/12/2008 5:03:28 PM
IIRC the B-2 does have an AESA or will be recieving it very soon. It is one truly powerful airplane.
 
 
 
-DA
 
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Galderio       2/13/2008 1:00:45 PM
I think the B2 already have an LPI AESA.
 
 
Imagine moving target capability in a JSOW to destroy ships.
 
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DarthAmerica       2/13/2008 1:09:14 PM

I think the B2 already have an LPI AESA.
 
Imagine moving target capability in a JSOW to destroy ships.

Or even just 500 lb JDAMs! No SAG anywhere in the world would be safe once located. Between a pair of them thats well over 100 dirt cheap precision weapons suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Wow.
 
-DA

 
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Galderio       2/13/2008 1:11:37 PM
I think the B2 already have an LPI AESA.
 
 
Imagine moving target capability in a JSOW to destroy ships.
 
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Galderio       2/13/2008 1:18:00 PM
"Or even just 500 lb JDAMs!"
 
Would be devasting, you could destroy all large ships of most navies with one or two Bombers.
I just don´t know if JDAMs can be launch form a safe range.
 
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DarthAmerica       2/13/2008 2:36:18 PM

"Or even just 500 lb JDAMs!"

 

Would be devasting, you could destroy all large ships of most navies with one or two Bombers.

I just don´t know if JDAMs can be launch form a safe range.


Against most ships, they are very safe. Not very many ships have that good of an AAW capability even against a non stealthy aircraft nevermind a B-2.
-DA
 
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displacedjim       2/13/2008 6:00:12 PM

"Or even just 500 lb JDAMs!"

 

Would be devasting, you could destroy all large ships of most navies with one or two Bombers.

I just don´t know if JDAMs can be launch form a safe range.



Since B-2s can probably safely approach within 60km or so of even anti-air warfare destroyers like the 051C and 052C, and the SDB has a range of up to 90km, the first B-2 targets them with a dozen or more SDBs on each ship.  After enough get through the terminal defenses to take down their radars (sinking would be a bonus, but a firepower kill is sufficient), the next couple B-2s start dropping 500lb and 2000lb JDAMs on the amphibious warfare ships and the 052Bs and 052Cs.  Ten or twenty sorties later (i.e., about two to three days later), and we'll have difficulty even finding anything to strike that's still afloat and not burning already. 

 

The only downside is we have to wait until 2014 for SDB II to go into production.  I continue to stick to my opinion that the window of whatever meager opportunity they can muster, is starting to open for the Chinese but won't stay open for more than several years.  I think their only real chance comes once they have anti-carrier and anti-airbase ballistic missile capability in large numbers and lasts no later than about 2012-2015.  By 2015 and the F-35 and many other systems (including our own CBG anti-ballistic missile defenses) become widely available, whatever gap managed to push open will slam down again.

 

 
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RockyMTNClimber    Windows of opportunity, windows of death.........   2/13/2008 8:34:44 PM
The only downside is we have to wait until 2014 for SDB II to go into production.  I continue to stick to my opinion that the window of whatever meager opportunity they can muster, is starting to open for the Chinese but won't stay open for more than several years.  I think their only real chance comes once they have anti-carrier and anti-airbase ballistic missile capability in large numbers and lasts no later than about 2012-2015.  By 2015 and the F-35 and many other systems (including our own CBG anti-ballistic missile defenses) become widely available, whatever gap managed to push open will slam down again.<DJ
 
Does that remind anyone of another Asian country in the middle of the last century?
 
Check Six
 
Rocky
 
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